Earlier this month I posted information about trouble that I had with a
Prentice-Hall "premium WebCT content" epack. Ultimately the problems
were (1) initial lack of effective and focused effort by Prentice-Hall
support, (2) Prentice-Hall sending passwords for a different product
than the ePack they sent for my students (these did not work at all),
(3) some sort of bug or incompatibility in WebCT that prevented the
ePack site from working after the password problem was solved (WebCT
support troubleshot that and fixed it).
Getting things working five weeks after the course started is
out of alignment with my requirements. After posting a message about
this mess to the list, one of Prentice-Hall's top authors who is a
member of this eCommunity contacted the Executive Editor for Management
who then roused the troops and got me a multitude of helpers to solve
the password mess.
LEARNING:
(1) Don't believe sales reps on the availability of new materials. (You
would think after more than a quarter of a century of university
teaching I would have know that!)
(2) Don't be patient with ineffective tech support. Contact higher
levels of the support structure if non-responsiveness is found. (I had
to cope with statements from a support person that: "well of course I
didn't answer your calls. I had gone away for a week" (it was three
weeks that there was no response!)
(3) There might be support from your university beyond the designated
support person. (It's probably best not to recount the SJU support
history here, though near the end they fielded a winning team in this
game.)
Who says teaching is not the real world!
Cybercollaborating,
Charles Wankel
Mg-ed-dv List Director
wankelc@stjohns.edu
(contact me if you wish to change your subscription to the list)